SPOILER ALERT: If you have not completed watching ‘Stranger Things 3’, you may want to turn back or proceed with caution, as this information contains SPOILERS.

‘Stranger Things 3’ was probably the most emotional season yet, and viewers were gut-punched by two major deaths in the final episode. Although one of those deaths was almost immediately undone by the post-credits scene at the end.

That scene was vague, but one thing that was certain is that the Russians (or Soviets as they would have been called back then) have cracked the barrier between this world and the Upside Down and have extracted their own Demogorgon… a Demogorgon who must feed. When the guards go to select a prisoner to feed to their monster, one guard goes to open one cell, but the other guard, in Russian, says “No, not the American.” Fans immediately assumed that this was a reference to Hopper (David Harbour), who had seemingly been killed earlier when Joyce (Winona Ryder) had to turn off the Soviets’ laser drill used to break the barrier between the two worlds. The device had previously been shown to vaporize everyone in its vicinity when it shuts down. But Hopper’s death wasn’t actually depicted on screen. One minute he was there. The next he wasn’t.

But this is just a theory for now.

Meanwhile, Millie Bobby Brown discussed filming her most emotional scene of the season, when she had to read the letter left behind by Hopper, which Joyce finds when she is packing away his shirts. The letter was supposed to be read to Eleven earlier in the story, after Hopper gets angry about Eleven and Mike spending too much time together. However, he puts the letter away and goes freestyle, threatening Mike (mostly off camera).

For the scene of Eleven reading the letter, Brown says she was completely unrehearsed and that a recording of Harbour reading it was played overhead for her to react to.

“I just immediately wanted to put a camera on me and find the way I react and the way I reacted was pure devastation and sadness, and a distraught child that just lost her father or so she thinks. So it was definitely a raw emotion, especially because David Harbour and I are really close. He is just one of the greatest men. I think something I admire about David is he respects girls and women so much. It felt so … I’m so gutted and I was like, ‘Oh, my God, this is horrible.’ So the emotions were raw in that scene for sure.”

While it is certainly touching to read about Brown’s experience filming the scene, what some are zeroing in on the phrase “that just lost her father or so she thinks.” Did Brown accidentally confirm that Hopper isn’t really dead and that he will be back in Season 4? It is possible, but it may have just been a slip of the tongue, or maybe Brown saw the post-credits scene and made the same assumption everyone else did.

It’s not even clear that the Duffer Brothers have firmly mapped out the next season at this early date. And if they had, how likely is it that they would have already passed that info to the cast, especially when they do on occasion, have a bad habit of accidentally spoiling things.

We probably won’t know for certain until Season 4 actually arrives, as the creators keep plot details tightly under wraps.

Jax Motes

Jax's earliest memory is of watching 'Batman,' followed shortly by a memory of playing Batman & Robin with a friend, which entailed running outside in just their underwear and towels as capes. When adults told them they couldn't run around outside in their underwear, both boys promptly whipped theirs off and ran around in just capes.